Non-state Actors in World Politics: a Framework

Abstract

Non-state actors are heroes and villains in different narratives of international politics. Idealists often present non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as the vanguard of an emerging global civil society, challenging the instinctive authoritarianism of states and the power of international capital. Enthusiasts for globalization see private social actors as building networks across borders, promoting shared understandings, even international solidarity. Hard-line Realists, on the other hand, see NGOs either as front-organizations thinly disguising the interests of particular states, or as potential revolutionaries, seeking to undermine national solidarity and the stability of the state system. Realists and Idealists come together in their ambivalence about transnational economic actors — banks and multinational companies (MNCs) — as transmitters both of investment and influence, as bringing both modernization and external intervention.